


Something Good Can Work

by raquetgirl



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry is tired but cute, Ethics What Ethics, F/M, Fluff, Journalist Iris West
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9817208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raquetgirl/pseuds/raquetgirl
Summary: Had this stub of a story with zero plot in my drafts, but Iris was being pushy, so here it is. May add more down the line.(Yes, it'sthatElizabeth Wakefield, lol.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Had this stub of a story with zero plot in my drafts, but Iris was being pushy, so here it is. May add more down the line.
> 
> (Yes, it's _that_ Elizabeth Wakefield, lol.)

Barry was just turning away from Detective Conwell, preparing to speed back to STAR Labs, when he collided with a small figure in a denim jacket.

“Flash!” The figure — a woman, all blonde waves and bright blue eyes — had regained her balance, accepting his steadying hand before pulling a pen from behind her ear. “You seemed a little slow out there. Everything okay?”

“Who—who? Are you?” Barry was winded and having to blur his face wasn’t helping. The meta he’d been fighting on the waterfront had truly _irritating_ teleportation abilities that forced the Flash to chase him fruitlessly all over Central City until Cisco had found a way to use the lab’s satellite to stabilize him on an atomic level. After that, capture had gotten a lot easier, but Barry was exhausted.

“Liz Wakefield.” She thrust her hand out again but dropped it when he didn’t take it. “I’m new at CCPN. Will they be taking the meta to Iron Heights or are the rumors of an extralegal metahuman holding facility at STAR Labs true?”

“Excuse me?” Barry was regaining his breath but still didn’t quite understand who this woman was. Usually Iris was the person to do post-mortems on Flash activity, and he finally spotted her a few feet away talking to Captain Singh.

“Flash?” Liz snapped her fingers in front of his face. “You alright in there?”

“What?” Focus, Barry. “Yeah, I’m fine. Low blood sugar. And I’m going to refer all questions on Peek-A-Boo’s future in the criminal justice system to the police.”

“So it’s true that you have to eat, like, way more than a normal human?” She was scribbling in her notebook furiously.

“I’m normal!” But he said it like a question, and when he glanced back over at Iris, he swore that she was trying not to watch them, hiding her laughter behind her hand.

“Do you—”

He cut her off, holding a finger to his right ear. “I’ve got a call coming in.” He did not have a call coming in. “See ya. Liz.”

Barry could hear her shouting, asking if he had a team working with him, as he sped away.

\---

Barry had downed six milkshakes by the time Iris made it to STAR Labs. Still, he couldn’t shake the irritation skittering over his skin.

“Babe.” Her wide smile greeted him in the otherwise empty cortex and she rounded a desk. “You were great out there.” He approximated a smile.

Iris’s voice turned sympathetic as she took in the already healing bruising on his hands and jaw. “Oh, honey...”

“I’m fine.” A sigh as he accepted the kiss Iris dropped on his forehead. “Just a little tired.”

“Poor Flash.” Iris was pushing him back in his chair a bit so that she could sit on his lap. She smirked, looking down at him. “Are you close to done here? We could go home and you could let me take care of you...” Dark promise in her voice made his belly curl with interest, but he couldn’t leave yet.

“Running some tests for Cisco.” Barry tightened his arms around her and nosed the hair from her neck, nipping at the soft skin under her jaw. “Later?”

“Definitely.” She pulled back to deliver a firm kiss to his cheek, then another to his lips.

For a moment, he held her, forgetting everything, letting the tension bleed from his body.

Iris eventually pulled back again to look at him. “So, I saw you met Liz?”

“Who _was_ she?” Barry’s voice was a little louder than he intended. “She said she just started at the Picture-News.”

A rueful grin passing over Iris’s face. “I told her to go easy, to start by asking you for coffee.”

Barry’s face was pure confusion.

“She’s a new metro reporter. Just moved here from Sweet Valley. She’s smart, and good, but new to town and getting her bearings.” Iris shrugged at Barry’s look, and stood, taking the slightly combative stance he knew far too well. “I used to be green, too. Anyway, she’s going to be covering The Flash going forward.”

“What? Why?” He stood too. “Why aren’t you writing about The Flash — me — anymore?”

“A little thing called journalistic ethics...” Iris lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “To be completely honest, me writing about metas at all is just on this side of ethical, considering...”

“Considering what?”

“Considering I go to bed with The Flash every night and wake up with him every morning — at least I do when he’s not out all night...” Iris was pacing now, a clear sign she’d been thinking about this for weeks, if not months. “Barr. I love you. I _help_ you. I can’t be clearheaded when writing about you.”

“I thought you said ‘objectivity’ in journalism was bunk—”

“It is! I know there aren’t two sides here.” She tossed her hair back in frustration. “But it’s one thing to know that the guy in red who saves lives and gives hope to this city is good and that the guys who take lives and terrify it are bad. It’s another to—to be head over heels in love with the guy in red, and kiss his gorgeous stupid face every chance I get. My readers trust me. If they knew we were... involved, they wouldn’t.” 

They were both silent for a moment, her words heavy between them, the only sound the beeping of medical equipment at a distance.

“So... you think my face is stupid...and gorgeous.” Barry smiled a little at her, because he couldn’t stay annoyed with Iris very long, especially not when her eyes were flashing like that and—

“Ugh.” Then she was _crowding_ him against the desk and pulling him down to her by his shirt. “And I want to kiss it every chance I get.” 

Barry slowed his descent with a smile, letting his lips brush hers just slightly until Iris made a noise like a growl, chasing his mouth with a sharp nip. He pouted until she smoothed it with a gentler kiss, and they lost a few minutes in each other’s arms, trading slow kisses.

When Barry finally pulled away for air, Iris had that soft look on her face that always spelled the end of an argument.

“So you want me to talk to Liz.”

“She’s not going to give up. Might as well.”

“What’d you tell Scott about not writing about me anymore?”

“I told him I wanted to take on more investigative reporting -- focusing on all the metas that haven’t yet made their abilities known.”

“And he agreed.”

“He agreed.”

And that was that. Round one to Iris West. Not that Barry minded losing much when she sidled back up to him, heat in her eyes, throat exposed for him to duck his lips to.

The testing was going to take at least another hour, but somehow they occupied themselves for an extra two or three. Just to be thorough.


End file.
